In part for his familiarity with the Astros hitters from his time as minor league hitting coordinator, Mike Barnett was hired to replace Jeff Bagwell as Astros hitting coach.

The Astros signed Barnett to a one-year contract, bringing to a close roughly a week's worth of interviews for the opening created by Bagwell, who turned down a two-year deal citing an inability to commit to the long schedule. Six different candidated interviewed, but the Astros decided to stay in-house.

General manager Ed Wade said the hiring came down to "a real good body of work that he's developed and the fact that he knows our system and knows our hitters."

Barnett spent 2009 and 2010 in the Astros' system and was previously a hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays from 2002 through midway through the 2005 season and the Kansas City Royals from 2006-08.

Between those major league jobs, he served as an instructor with the Boston Red Sox, where he worked with Brad Mills, who was at the time Boston's bench coach.

“We are adding another quality individual to our coaching staff, and someone that has worked with almost every player on the roster at some point in time," Mills said.

Wade said the comfort level between Mills and Barnett came to the forefront during the interview process.

"It was really Millsie, when we whittled the list down and probably got it down to the final three, he was the one who said 'I think it's important that we salute what Barney's done in the system,'" Wade said. "One because it's the right message to send generally throughout the system, but also of equal importance, from the standpoint of his familiarity with the hitters."

Part of the interview process with each candidate revolved around the fact that the Astros were discontinuing the use of an advance scout, and in the end, Barnett's acumen for using video rather than reports was a factor.

The hiring completes the major league coaching staff, but it puts more work on the desk of Fred Nelson, starting his third month as director of player development.

Nelson will begin a search for a replacement as minor league hitting coordinator, adding to his tasks of hiring managers for the Class AAA and AA levels among other vacancies on the farm.